The Audacious Journey with Udacity

Drafting a blog has been never easy for me but I choose to accept the challenge and complete it. It recalls me of this quote

I am Aisha Ambar from Pakistan, currently enrolled in Ned University of Engineering and Technology Pakistan. Seriously, I never knew that I will be a Computer Engineer someday but here I am pursuing a degree in Computer Systems Engineering but that doesn’t mean that I am not involved in my field actually I am and I adore this department.

I have some plans that I want to accomplish in my professional life but the most important aim to be mentioned here is learning. Yes! I embrace learning opportunities and I believe this can be the key to other parallel aims in my professional career.

A few months back I was scrolling down my Facebook feed and there I found a post associated to Bertelsmann Udacity Data Science Scholarship. I filled the application form and submitted it. I had no idea that these few minutes I took to fill the form would reveal a lot of learning opportunities to me but I came to know this when I got a confirmation email for my selection in this scholarship. It was the fortunate moment for me to see this news. This program was about to start on 8th May 2018, as it was stated in the email, till then, we were eagerly waiting to begin this amazing scholarship journey ahead.

Eventually, the wait was over and the most awaited day of May appeared and our Udacity community managers supervised us to get started with this challenge scholarship. Yes! you read it accurately as “Challenge Scholarship”. This phase I of scholarship is a challenge that we had to accept and strive from the day one to succeed it in order to get shortlisted for phase II, which is six months nano degree in one of the three fields, namely:

• Data Foundations
• Business Analyst
• Data Analyst

This decision will be exerted by Udacity community managers that which of the above-mentioned division is most suitable for each of the chosen candidates of phase II. But in which direction should students like me, endeavor to get a ticket to the next phase? So, there are some essentials that I am discussing subsequently and that we need to fulfill if we want to make it to the next phase. Have a look!

• Course Completion
• Original Application
• Community Participation

Let’s have a glimpse at each of these elements.
Course completion is unquestionably to complete the course before the deadline that is 8th August 2018. This course covers three parts: Statistics, Python and SQL.

Original application is what we submitted at the time of this scholarship registration.

Last but not least and hence most influential is community participation. Students in this challenging course are registered from all over the world and to be very precise, Udacity chose 15000 students from 156 countries so you can now guesstimate that how diverse this scholarship community is and no doubt, this is the best part of this scholarship. Let’s come to the participation part, to ensure our engagement in the community we can follow various steps, such as

• Posting questions and answers in forums and slack
• Taking an effective part in healthy and productive debates
• Virtual or in-person meetups
• Group projects
• Group studies
• Blog writing and much much more.

These are the directions which one can follow up to mark his contributions in the community and hence towards the next phase, which is the real game!
As I quoted earlier that community is the best part of this scholarship and yes it is! 15000 students from all over the world speaking different dialects, belonging to distinct cultures and age groups, is what makes this community, a diverse community. What makes this community that favorite and lovely? Here you’ll find people from completely different academic backgrounds who either want career change in their lives or want to become a data scientist or business analyst or something else, that means this platform is presenting work opportunities to a lot of people who are engaged and doing their best to make most of it and I am one of them!

What’s the motivating factor that drives each of us? Actually, it’s not one that is defined in this concern, rather, there are numerous constituents which prove to be valuable whenever we require to boost our impulse. What are those factors? I will address a few of them.

I see a number of people who are full-time employees and parents, but they are still trying hard and hoping to end this challenge before the deadline. Secondly, the mothers, who are looking after their children, hired as full-time employees and finishing this course also and there are many other people who are encountering a lot of dilemmas in their circumstances but their enthusiasm is high and they have a powerful determination. These are the people who inspire me and I think not only me but most of us.

Lastly, wish me luck so that I get shortlisted in the next phase and attain my purpose to become a Data Scientist. By the way, I get selected or not but I am earning the excellent experience and thank you so much Udacity for giving me generous friends from all over the world. Yes! from various countries like I am now friend with someone who is an Egyptian and one from Indonesia and one from India and a lot of friends from Pakistan. Moreover, it has been an enjoyable scholarship adventure where I not only learned the course material but I also got a chance to develop my soft skills and much more.

If you’re a knowledge geek and looking for a similar chance like this Bertelsmann Udacity Data Science Scholarship Challenge then get yourself registered for alerts regarding upcoming scholarship opportunities.
https://www.udacity.com/scholarships